Sunday, December 16, 2012

Paradox-Tales Of The Weird

AFM Records2013

It's been a little over 2 years now since I joined Heavy Metal Time Machine. During that time frame there is one thing that I've come to realize and that is it's almost impossible to keep track of every band I have in my personal collection. Take Paradox here for example. The band's second album, "Heresy", which was released in 1989, is a classic thrash metal LP and a CD re-release of said LP is sitting in my CD collection as I type. You'd think then that I'd have followed Paradox, but it just hasn't been the case. I was actually surprised when this promo arrived in my e-mail because I had always assumed they had broken up.It turns out I was partially right as they did break-up at one point (for roughly 10 years it seems) before re-forming. They then ended up going on hiatus again at one point while Charly Steinhauer (vocals/guitars) was dealing with illness issues. This album is actually the group's sixth full-length LP and the first since 2009's "Riot Squad". Again, since I had never heard anything other then "Heresy" this was a complete surprise to me, but it ended up being one of those good surprises. While it isn't the classic that "Heresy" was (that would be hard to do since it is just such a killer album) it's still offers quite the full-force, thrash attack impact that we've all come to know and love from German bands. Really, the band's sound is a great mixture of speed and thrash and it's not only some of the best German thrash I've had the pleasure of hearing in sometime, but some of the better all-around thrash I've heard this year! Charly Steinhauer still has the lungs to pull of this kind of intense metal and with the rest of the band (Christian Münzner-guitars, Olly Keller-bass and Daniel “Evil Ewald” Buld-drums), all playing at such a high-level this is one of those albums that will appeal to fan's of German thrash as well American acts like Exodus, Megadeth and Testament. With a great production job by
Charly Steinhauer, and the added benefit of having guest appearances by Bob Katsionis
(Firewind) and Gus Drax (Sunburst), this is the kind of thrash metal that Metallica could wish they could still pull off. From the moment the opening cut ("Tales Of The Weird) kicks into gear to the album is just one great track after another. There is seriously not a bad number to be found on this new album and, while it might not top "Heresy" in my mind, it's such a good speed/thrash album that I can't help but highly recommend it. What really does it for me though is how they choose to close out the album. For the last track on "Tales Of The Weird" the band pulls off a epic cover of Rainbow's "A Light In The Black" (seriously, this bonus track is such a wicked cover) and, in doing so, manages to perfectly wrap up their new album.

"So, in closing, fuck you METAL MARK. Fuck you, fuck Lynch Mob, and fuck your shitty website!”
“I don't know who this METAL MARK is, but I know better than to waste my time checking out anything else written by this asshole”
-Mike